For Never Let Me Go Clark Gable has dusted off his American correspondent role from Comrade X. In that very funny comedy, Gable was playing an American newspaperman covering the Soviet Union before World War II. He's back at his correspondent's desk in this film. However here he's deadly in earnest as a man driven by love to get his Russian bride out of the police state.Sadly the film was dated from its release with the prominent use of newsreel footage involving Joseph Stalin. The film was released on May 1, 1953 and Stalin had died in March of 1953. The state was the same, but the personalized red bogeyman that Stalin had become was no longer there. I'm sure that must have lessened the impact for those who saw Never Let Me Go in the theater.During the war Gable meets ballerina Gene Tierney and in the spirit of the wartime alliance they fall in love and get married. But when the shooting war against Hitler stops and the Cold War starts, no one tells them NYET concerning romance. The increasingly cynical tone of Gable's stories make him an undesirable in the Soviet Union, he gets deported and Tierney is left behind. The Soviets don't recognize marriage and romance with the enemy.Clark's not going to take that lying down. With Richard Haydn, another man who married a Russian girl left behind, they hire Bernard Miles who has a seaworthy craft and plan a rescue. It's quite a plan and a last minute hitch should have told any sensible person to try another day. Of course that's not what happens, but it does render the last minute rescue somewhat silly.Tierney and Gable make a sincere of pair of romantic lovers. Even without the personalization of Stalin, the film is an accurate reflection of the times. Russians are a mighty suspicious lot of people, before, during, and after the Soviet Union. Kenneth More has a very nice role as a television broadcaster presumably for the BBC who helps the leads with some coded messages in his broadcasts.Gable was getting a bit old for these kind of romantic daring do roles by 1953 though. It's not one of the top films of his career or in that last decade of that fabled Gable career.

I almost wrote off watching this film because I saw a one star review for it and it involves the ballet, both turn off's for me. However many other reviewers gave it reasonable reviews and it had Clark Gable in post WW2 USSR (notice I did not write Russia, there is a difference). I'm happy I did watch it, although I would have enjoyed it more had I watched it with my wife (we are separated due to work issues), I know she would have liked or loved it. In response to another comment here, some of my favorite Gable movies are from the 50's. He did "Run Silent Run Deep", "Betrayed", and a personal favorite of mine "Soldier Of Fortune". He was a product of the Hollywood machine and couldn't be expected to go too far out of character, that's what people were paying for. Harrison Ford seems to me to be a modern day equivalent, all his acting roles seem similar to each other. To equate Gable to Wayne's film's is OK, Wayne probably actually had more diverse roles if you think about it. I guess neither played a gay role but that was before the time these film's were made. Anyway see this film, it's pretty good, and I like the black and white photography over color, it adds to the third world USSR element. I give it a respectable 8 of 10, more entertaining for me than many other Gable film's I remember. See it with your wife or partner to enjoy it even more as it is really a date movie; elements to please each gender.

This movie is bad but not in an interesting or entertaining way. Its politics are kind of peculiar. Its plot is minimal. And Clark Gable looks rather heavy and unengaged. (Did men during this period actually swim in old fashioned two-piece bathing costumes? If not, why were swimming scenes included?) Gene Tierney was a beautiful woman and a good actress under the right circumstances. She's touching in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and amusingly over-the top in "Leave Her To Heaven." However, casting her as a Russian ballerina? She doesn't sound or look Russian. She looks ravishing but the whole movie is exceptionally bad.

"Never Let Me Go" is truly Clark Gable's last romantic movie. It shows the hardships on how an American reporter and a Russian ballerina must endure in order to marry and leave Russia. The movie shows how the Russian government interferred with the romance. In real life, Russia would hve done worst things to stop the romance, but this is a Hollywood romantic movie in the 1950's.Clark Gable and the beautiful Gene Tierney make a beautiful couple and you route for them to escape and live happily ever after. This is a great movie to see on a rainy day or any day. It is on video.